Abstract
This article develops a composite indicator to monitor the levels of civic competence of young people in Europe using the IEA ICCS 2009 study. The measurement model combines the traditions in Europe of liberal, civic republican and critical/cosmopolitan models of citizenship. The results indicate that social justice values and citizenship knowledge and skills of students are facilitated within the Nordic system that combines a stable democracy and economic prosperity with a democratically based education systems in which teachers prioritise promoting autonomous critical thinking in citizenship education. In contrast, medium term democracies with civic republican tradition, such as Italy and Greece gain more positive results on citizenship values and participatory attitudes. This is also the case for some recent former communist countries that retain ethnic notions of citizenship. In a final step we go on to argue that the Nordic teachers’ priority on developing critical and autonomous citizens perhaps facilitates 14 years olds qualities of cognition on citizenship and the values of equality but may not be the most fruitful approach to enhance participatory attitudes or concepts of a good citizen which may be better supported by the Italian teachers’ priority on civic responsibility.
Highlights
Cross-country comparisons of young people’s qualities for civic engagement have become an established field of research inquiry (Hahn 1998; Torney-Purta et al 1999, 2001; Amnaand Zetterberg 2010)
It may not be surprising to find that the Czech Republic, a former communist country, has lower levels of civic competence than other countries in Europe and it could be argued that the civic republican traditions in Italy and Greece facilitate the learning of civic competence there
The results have shown that the Nordic countries—combining democratically based education systems with teachers who believe that citizenship education is about promoting autonomous critical thinking and a political context of a long and stable democracy—have been able to enhance the social justice and citizenship knowledge and skills of their students (Table 3)
Summary
Cross-country comparisons of young people’s qualities for civic engagement have become an established field of research inquiry (Hahn 1998; Torney-Purta et al 1999, 2001; Amnaand Zetterberg 2010). Country differences and changes across time in young people’s knowledge, attitudes and values, and intended behaviour can be monitored. In this context, this article develops four dimensions of youth civic competence using International Civic and Citizenship education Study (ICCS) data (Schulz et al 2010) to examine the levels of civic competence in young people aged about 14 years across Europe.
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